Rectors Report 2014

God has blessed us wonderfully this year, and I give thanks to him and express my appreciation to everyone who has volunteered to serve, or give, or pray in any capacity to make our parish viable and successful.  We have a beautiful building and a glorious liturgy, but the greatest treasure God has given us in this place is each other.

2014 has been a year characterized by gradual change and adjustment to the demographic realities of our situation here at St. John's. Our Average Sunday Attendance (ASA) of 84 represents a drop of 13 .5 from 2013.  This is accounted for in part by our decision to discontinue our nursing home services for the time being because the age and physical condition of our volunteers made the services very difficult to staff.  Those services had increased our ASA by about ten people per week over the last several years.  With this taken into consideration, our actual drop in parish attendance over the year was in the neighborhood of 3.5  to 4 per week.  We had 3 baptisms, 4 confirmations, 4 weddings, and 9 burials in 2014.  Many of us continue to grey, and we have said goodbye to several faithful friends in this past year.  But there are new faces, and children in our congregation as well.  Our financial numbers looked very good at the end of the year.  The faithfulness of our pledgers and donors, combined with solid rental income (the result of good management by our volunteers), the assistance of Fairfield Anglican Fellowship, and a strong stock market, allowed us to come in better than budget, and without significantly reducing the total amount of our holdings.  Surely we are blessed by God with faithful managers and many who love this parish.

St. John's has continued to be very active in our community over the past year.  We provide meeting space for Alcoholics Anonymous, 4-H, and the Girl Scouts, and participate in the FairHoPe Hospice Cookie Walk, The Lancaster Festival Art Walk, and Fairfield Historical Society Candlelight Tour of Churches.  Our ministry outreaches include a Community Warming Station for the homeless, regular Parish Health informational luncheons, Fairfield County Jail visitation, and assisting with the Community Dinner at St. Paul's in Logan.  We cooperate with other denominations in our town through the CROP Walk, the downtown warming stations, and our annual Thanksgiving Service and ingathering, not to mention regular donations to local food pantries and mission giving to numerous community and para-church ministries at home and around the world. 

Our Christian Education offerings, while not well attended, are substantial.  Our Wednesday and Sunday Morning classes have featured discussion starters from leading Church of England parishes, and from prominent preachers and teachers in our Communion.  While we did have several graduates in the Education For Ministry program in 2014, our numbers were insufficient to offer the program for 2015.  We hope to offer the program again in the not too distant future.  But the shining light of our education program this year was the restart of our Sunday School for children 2nd grade and younger, and the continuation of Pizza and God Talk for middle school youth.  Truly we are blessed with the laughter and joy of children.  We also support Young Life at Lancaster High School and encourage our Senior High Youth to be active in that fine ministry.  The ministry of our ushers and acolytes also involves  the young people of our parish in our common life.  Much of this ministry has been made possible by the willingness of our people to receive diocesan training in creating a safe place for our children and other parishioners.

The worship of God, which is our primary purpose at St. John's, is rich and full.  Our regular weekly services offer Eucharistic services from across the full spectrum of historic Anglicanism, and we are one of the few parishes in Ohio which offers weekly solemn choral evensong.  We were sad to see Deacon Don Eager leave us after Thanksgiving, but are excited to see the faithfulness of our choristers, guild members, lay readers, lectors, and ushers- and are thankful that we have parishioners enrolled in the Diocesan Worship Leader and Preaching courses.  And God willing and with the consent of our Bishop, we anticipate welcoming Nick England as our Deacon in mid 2015.  We are particularly blessed by our professional musicians, and have enjoyed their original hymns, anthems,  and service music compositions throughout the year. 

We meet all of our Diocesan responsibilities on time and in full, and work hard to implement our bishop's vision of a Church which brings people together and to God.  Our model continues to be one of  shared, or "Common Ministry", which acknowledges the realities of scarce resources and seeks to empower all the people of God to follow the ministries to which God calls them in his kingdom.  Our implementation is not perfect, but we are definitely moving in the right direction.  God has blessed us with strong and compassionate leadership and with a management methodology sometimes called "consensus model", which seeks to bring us together to act more as a family making decisions than as a board developing and implementing policy. 

God has blessed us in 2014, and I anticipate another year of opportunities to share the good news of Jesus in 2015, for surely God is in this place.

Rector's Rambling February 2015- Developing a Proper Attitude for Lent

The New Year has come in with a vengeance.  Cold, ice, and snow seem to be the norm.  I had hoped to get Oscar out for a few more duck and goose hunts, but the water has been far too cold for my furry friend.  Princess has been in her stall far more than she likes, and the chickens tend to stay on their roost most of the day, just a few inches from the brooder lamp I have installed for them.  We are in the grip of winter!

But inside, things have already begun to thaw.  Herbs and lettuces are sprouted in the seed propagation trays, and within a month will be ready for transplanting into the greenhouse.  By the time Lent begins, their places under the bright lights will have been taken by tomatoes and pepper plants.  Even in the depths of winter, the new life of spring, and the hope of Easter, are just around the corner.  The days get longer every week now, and before long the chirp of replacement chicks and ducklings will bring cheer to the barn.

Sometimes, events in the world around us can seem like a long winter with no end in sight, but yesterday I ran across a video which brought me great hope in the immediate wake of the tragic terrorist strikes in Paris.  Anglican TV interviewed a Christian Priest who has been working in Northern Iraq, and he had very encouraging things to say about what is happening in the broader world of evangelism and Christian understanding.  His approach was very refreshing in an era where so many people seem to adopt hardened positions and live their lives in fear, or dominated by a need to control everyone around them.  The entire interview can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk-kGHYizEQ, and I commend it to you.  I can't vouch for the absolute accuracy of everything which is said, but I can certainly appreciate the spirit of a ministry which shows respect for those who differ, which honestly seeks to evaluate and understand the complexity of the situation, and which holds to the received Christian teachings about the importance of evangelism and the unique work of Jesus in history. 

All of this brings me to the beginning of Lent.  Our disciplines for the season will begin with the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday, February 18th, at Noon and 7PM.  I would urge you to abstain at least from red meat, sweets, and alcohol on that day, and come to one of the services to offer yourself to God in a time of preparation.  On Sunday the 22nd we will pray the Great Litany in both services, and that day at 4 the St. John's Choir will offer Solemn Choral Evensong.  Services of Holy Communion throughout Lent will be Wednesdays at Noon and Sundays at 8 and 10:30.  Special Lenten Educational and Devotional Programs with simple meals provided will be held Each Sunday at 5PM.    I encourage everyone to consider abstaining from red meat, sweets, and alcohol on Wednesdays and Fridays during Lent.  Shorten or eliminate your lunch meal on those days and spend the time you gain in prayer for your own reformation and for needs in the world around you.  Take any money you save by your disciplines and give it to support some work of mercy done in the Name of Jesus Christ.  As we participate in these historic disciplines of the Church, God will meet us and draw us ever closer to himself, and he will work through us to transform the world in which we live.

May our Lord grant to us all a blessed Lent, and fill our hearts with joyous anticipation of a wondrous Easter.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.